MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — If nothing else, Odell Beckham Jr.’s right arm looks just fine.
The new Miami Dolphins wide receiver didn’t run any routes during this week’s mandatory minicamp. But he did show off another skill: The ability to throw an accurate pass.
Miami Dolphins Plan for Odell Beckham Jr.
Both Beckham and Tyreek Hill sat out of this week’s practices but did join the Dolphins quarterbacks for their target practice battles. The competition? Firing spirals into a net in the back corner of the end zone.
Beckham was a natural. And while knowing that he could be trusted with a wide receiver double pass is good information for head coach Mike McDaniel, that’s not why the Dolphins signed Beckham to a one-year contract in free agency.
He’s on the roster to get open, catch balls, and take double-team pressure off of Hill and Jaylen Waddle.
Members of the sporting press had hoped to see the new Dolphins triplets this past week. Unfortunately, Beckham’s 31-year-old body had other ideas.
Why isn’t Odell Beckham practicing in minicamps? Mike McDaniel answers. pic.twitter.com/aWWP1komgx
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) June 5, 2024
“Everybody is excited to see players when they first get here specifically, and a player of that caliber, everyone is pumped up,” McDaniel said Wednesday. “But systematically what we try to do is learn the player and develop a relationship with them and adjust to their body on their timeline so we can have the most beneficial, communicative relationship of maintaining health.
“Long story short, working into playing with the Miami Dolphins, between myself and [head athletic trainer Kyle Johnston], we decided you guys were going to have to wait. But that’s just due to the individual process that we are very consistent with when new guys come to the team. We take nothing of assumption and make sure when guys are on the field, there’s no setbacks. We’re obviously applying that to him.”
What exactly does that mean? Let’s switch on our McDaniel translator.
It seems as though Beckham — who has twice torn his ACL in his career and missed time in 2023 with an ankle injury — is dealing with a minor injury that the Dolphins don’t want to make worse.
Usually, context clues help fill in some of the information holes, but Beckham didn’t wear a brace or compression sleeve while watching practice from the sidelines (and occasionally the middle of the field) this week.
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That suggests Miami is acting out of an abundance of caution given Beckham’s history and where we are on the calendar. And it also suggests that when the team reconvenes next month, Beckham should be good to go.
“A lot of those guys weren’t here most of the offseason,” Dolphins wide receivers coach Wes Welker said of his top receivers. “I think training camp is going to be really big for us and understand that we got to come in with the right mindset and, and knowing that we got a lot of work to do. But I’m not too worried about it.
“I think [if] we come into training camp with the right mindset and knowing how we need to work and really kind of dial everything in, I feel really good about how we’ll be able to respond when the season comes.”